Anti-Israel groups recruiting celebrities to sign ‘unbranded’ $200K NYT ad opposing Trump’s Gaza plan

The organizers’ decision to stay anonymous suggests that signatories could be reluctant to publicly associate with anti-Israel groups, many of which have been linked to anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist protests on college campuses.

By Alana Goodman, The Washington Free Beacon

Anti-Israel groups are privately organizing a full-page ad in the New York Times intended to showcase the Jewish community’s alleged opposition to President Donald Trump’s plan for an American takeover of Gaza, describing it as “ethnic cleansing,” the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

But the “unbranded” ad will include no mention of “organizational affiliations,” including the participation of groups with close ties to Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), according to a Google form being used to collect the signatures from rabbis and other Jewish celebrities.

The groups In Our Name Coalition, Artists4Ceasefire, and Rabbis for Ceasefire—a spinoff of JVP founded by former JVP executive Alissa Wise—have privately sought out signatures from “Jewish celebrities” and other “notable Jews” for the ad, the form shows.

But they are avoiding any fingerprints, with one organizer, Becky Silverstein of left-wing nonprofit T’ruah, arguing that mentioning the groups involved would undermine the ad’s impact.

“The ad is being organized by a group of individuals from the In Our Name Campaign, Rabbis for Ceasefire, Artists for Ceasefire, and others,” Silverstein wrote in a message soliciting signatures, obtained by the Free Beacon.

“We are doing it unbranded to make it possible to say the thing that we believe is essential and urgent to say in this moment, with as many leaders as possible.”

“I’m not sure yet where the funds will come from,” continued Silverstein, a self-described “Queer and trans” rabbi in the Boston area.

“The cost of a full page NYT ad is approximately 200k. The hope is that individuals who believe in the power of narrative shift will support this statement, as it represents a clear challenge to the presidential administration and a more [sic] statement on behalf of Jewish clergy and Jewish leaders.”

Artists4Ceasefire, a group that was also founded in the wake of October 7 to oppose Israel’s military response to Hamas terrorism, organized celebrities to wear pins denouncing Israel during the Oscars last year.

Israelis told the Free Beacon that the pins, which featured an image of bloody hands, appeared to invoke a famous photo from the Second Intifada, which showed a Palestinian terrorist holding up his red-stained hands after lynching an Israeli.

The news comes as anti-Israel activists grapple with how to respond to Trump’s groundbreaking plan for the United States to take over and rebuild Gaza as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

The organizers’ decision to stay anonymous suggests that signatories could be reluctant to publicly associate with anti-Israel groups, many of which have been linked to anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist protests on college campuses.

Jewish Voice for Peace, for example, was suspended from schools like Columbia University due to its pro-Hamas activism.

The Google document used to collect signatures does not mention the names of the organizing groups. “This will be just a group of individuals/ unbranded/ no organizational affiliations,” the document states.

According to the Google document, the ad will state: “Trump has now called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza in no uncertain terms. In response we say: Jews Say No to Ethnic Cleansing.”

The statement will be followed by a “list of signatories that will feature Jewish celebrities” and “ordained rabbis, cantors, and kohanot.”

The In Our Name Campaign, a newly created project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is funded by anti-Israel activists, including Naomi and David Roswell.

The siblings, who have given the group at least $250,000, inherited their fortune from their great-grandfather Jacob Blaustein, a former president of the American Jewish Committee.

Blaustein held a different view of the State of Israel, helping to fund it in the wake of its founding. The campaign received $300,000 from Silverstein and wife Naomi Sobel, a mining and construction heiress.

Wise, meanwhile, founded Rabbis for Ceasefire after the October 7 attacks. She served in various roles at JVP, including deputy director, acting co-executive director, and co-director of organizing, between 2011 and 2021.